Royal Palm Bay Villas, Orlando, Kissimee, Florida , USA.

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Saint Augustine, some ninety miles north-east of Orlando , is the oldest continuously inhabited European settlement in North America . The Spanish, the French and the British have passed through at various times. From the sixteenth century onwards the Spanish brought their customary death and pillage accompanied by enforced conversion to Christianity. It was they who named Florida after the Easter 'feast of flowers', Pascua Florida . They left behind horses and cattle that became feral. Many of the French were Huguenots seeking religious freedom but French influence never really took root in Florida . In the eighteenth century the British trickled south into the state laying waste the Spanish missions and the native settlements. Although Florida remained loyal to the Crown during the American War of Independence, when the British lost the Spanish took the opportunity to re-establish their influence there. Florida joined the Union in 1845.

The Florida crackers were the original cowboys, predating their western counterparts by half a century. But they were not the original inhabitants. These were the predecessors of the tribes that came to be known as the Seminole Indians, most of whom were banished to Oklahoma in 1857. This was after the last of the three Seminole wars, when their great leader Osceola was defeated. Some of these Indians escaped into the Everglades and did not resume official relations with the United States until as late as 1962.

Key West was traditionally the reserve of pirates and wreckers, who lured unwary ships up onto the rocks. Although the state as a whole seceded, Union troops held out in Key West against the Confederates throughout the Civil War. The peninsula to the south was not opened up until Henry Flagler and Henry B Plant brought the railways to Florida in the 1880s. A wide variety of immigrants followed, swamps were drained and rich farmland made accessible. Hurricanes, mosquitoes, and other natural hazards limited economic development. The 1920s saw a land boom which the Great Depression all but brought it to a standstill.

Miami was a late developer in the history of the state and is not even the capital, that is Tallahassee in the northern panhandle - a true part of the Old American South. The Art Deco period saw the start of the transformation of Miami from a fishing village into the city we know today. The development of modern pesticides after World War Two facilitated the cultivation of citrus fruits and created the conditions for tourists and retirees alike to take advantage of the state's year round sunshine and temperate climate.

Many new industries have moved into Florida , the most notable of which is space exploration which is centred on Cape Canaveral . The traditional ones of farming, mining, fishing and cigar making continue to thrive. A growing awareness of the state's historical and natural wealth is now beginning to moderate the negative effects of this unbridled development.